'Septuagint'

[patrick457]

In surviving Greek manuscripts meanwhile these are how the OT books are ordered.

Torah (Pentateuch)

Genesis (“Beginning”)
Exodus (Exodos “Going out”)
Leviticus (Leuitikon “relating to the Levites”)
Numbers (Arithmoi)
Deuteronomy (Deuteronomion “second Law”)

The section agrees with the Jewish version. There is no variation in order at this point, and they are always (when grouped in a manuscript with other books) at the head of the list, which points to the antiquity and the high status of the collection. The books in Greek are titled according to their respective subject matter as opposed to simply having the incipit.

Histories

Joshua (Iēsous Nauē)
Judges (Kritai)
Ruth (Routh)
1 Reigns (Basileōn A, aka 1 Samuel)
2 Reigns (Basileōn B, aka 2 Samuel)
3 Reigns (Basileōn G, aka 1 Kings)
4 Reigns (Basileōn D, aka 2 Kings)
1 Chronicles (Paralipomenon A)
2 Chronicles (Paralipomenon B)
1 Esdras (Esdras A, a mix of 2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, and original material)
2 Esdras (Esdras B, Ezra-Nehemiah)
Esther (Esthēr)
Judith (Ioudith)
Tobit (Tōbit)
1 Maccabees (Makkabaiōn A)
2 Maccabees (Makkabaiōn B)
3 Maccabees (Makkabaiōn G)
4 Maccabees (Makkabaiōn D)

The Greek Bibles seem to reflect an understanding of the ‘Former Prophets’ as histories and often associate other apparently historical works with them: so Ruth is placed in between Judges and Samuel-Kings. Samuel-Kings (Reigns) is then followed by 1-2 Chronicles and often by 1 and 2 Esdras. The Greek 1 Esdras as mentioned above is an original, pseudepigraphical work which combines material from 2 Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah and some original bits, while Greek 2 Esdras is a straightforward translation of Ezra-Nehemiah. (Do not confuse this with the Vulgate 1 and 2 Esdras, which are simply Ezra and Nehemiah, respectively.) Greek 1 Esdras is included only in some manuscripts. Depending on the manuscript, one or more of the four books of Maccabees then follow. (4 Maccabees is relegated to the appendix in current Greek Bibles.) Esther is often accompanied by Judith and Tobit.

Wisdom/Poetic Books

Psalms + Psalm 151 (Psalmoi)
Prayer of Manasses (Proseuchē Manassē)
Proverbs (Paroimiai)
Ecclesiastes (Ekklēsiastēs)
Song of Songs (Asma Asmatōn)
Job (Iōb)
Wisdom of Solomon (Sophia Salomōntos)
Wisdom of (Jesus) Sirach (Sophia (Iēsou) Seirach)
Psalms of Solomon (Psalmoi Salomōntos)

Instead of moving straight to the prophetic books, some manuscripts have a large section of containing all the remaining books found in the Hebrew Ketuvim with, usually, several other books such as Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon. The arrangement seems to be by reason of the poetic or (especially) the sapiential nature of the books. In Christian manuscripts a collection of ‘Odes’ is frequently included after the Psalms: the Prayer of Manasseh (which could appear as a separate work in its own right) is sometimes grouped with these canticles.

Prophecies
The Twelve (Dōdeka)
INDENT Hosea (Osëe)
(2) Amos (Amōs)
(3) Micah (Michaias)
(4) Joel (Iōel)
(5) Obadiah (Obdiou)
(6) Jonah (Iōnas)
(7) Nahum (Naoum)
(8) Habakkuk (Ambakoum)
(9) Zephaniah (Sophonias)
(10) Haggai (Angaios)
(11) Zechariah (Zacharias)
(12) Malachi (Angelos “Messenger”)
Isaiah (Hēsaias)
Jeremiah (Ieremias)
Baruch (Barouch)
Lamentations (Thrēnoi)
Letter of Jeremiah (Epistolē Ieremiou)
Ezekiel (Iezekiēl)
Daniel (Daniēl)[/INDENT]

Christian versions place Daniel with the three major prophets (Isaiah-Jeremiah-Ezekiel), usually after Ezekiel, though – perhaps out of chronological concern – sometimes before. Lamentations follows Jeremiah; and the first six of the twelve minor prophets are in the order Hosea-Amos-Micah-Joel-Obadiah-Jonah. (Note that in the 1st-2nd century Minor Prophets scroll found in Naḥal Ḥever in the Judaean desert - see post number 3 - the prophets are grouped in the Jewish order as opposed to the Greek.) The Jewish version seems to order the prophets according to supposed chronological order, while the Greek version (at least in the 4th century Codex Vaticanus - Codex Alexandrinus orders the books differently) has a descending order of length. Notice how the whole corpus can be arranged in a different order from our modern Bibles: sometimes the Twelve Minor Prophets precede the major prophets as in the list above (contrary to the standard order in our Bibles).

 

[patrick457]

I mentioned earlier that the quality and style of translation varies per book. That’s something I like to pay close attention to. Let’s start with the most important one: the Torah/Pentateuch section.



Genesis: As early as Philo in the 1st century (*Life of Moses *2.37) there has been speculation that Greek Genesis is the first biblical book to be translated. We have no external proof for this idea, but it is a likely suggestion. The translation contains many linguistic and exegetical solutions to the difficulties of the Hebrew text, as the translator tries to create something for which there is no exact precedent. The overall assessment of the text is that lexically and syntactically, it is a strict, quantitative representation of its Hebrew source: the translator has evidently tried to translate the original Hebrew accurately. The text the translator is using is very similar to (though not always identical with) the later Masoretic text; this source text was, of course, unvocalized (i.e. did not have any vowel points - which was a later invention). He produces a Greek which is sometimes elegant and idiomatic, sometimes apparently influenced by Hebrew expressions and syntax. So you can’t really pigeonhole the translation strictly: it is almost slavishly literal like an interlinear, but the translator does from time to time prefers renderings that reflect natural Greek usage rather than Hebrew idiom as well as contextualize a given passage for the benefit of the reader. Overall the translator’s practice isn’t consistent, but this is natural for someone who is feeling his way step-by-step.

The translator of Genesis engages in both semantic levelling and semantic differentiation. ‘Semantic levelling’ involves translating different words which may mean pretty much the same thing into a single word. There are more than 75 cases where our translator used a single Greek word to translate three or more different Hebrew words. A good example of this is the way our translator rendered the words 'erets (‘earth’, ‘land’), 'adamah (‘ground’, ‘land’), 'afar (‘dust’, ‘soil’), and śadeh (‘field’) with a single Greek word: gē (‘earth’, ‘land’). ‘Semantic differentiation’, meanwhile, involves the opposite: choosing to translate a single word differently depending on the demands of the context. One example is the Hebrew word nefesh (‘soul’, ‘life’, ‘being’, ‘person’, etc.): in 41 out of the 43 instances this word is used it is rendered by its closest Greek equivalent psychē, but in 14:21 - where the word is used to denote the hostages whom Abram rescued - it is rendered as andras (‘men’), and in 36:6 - where it denotes the members of Esau’s household - the word sōmata (‘bodies’, ‘slaves’) is employed.